


The Woods

by Windywords123



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Codependency, F/M, Families of Choice, Feral Children, Gen, Learning to survive together, M/M, Multi, Mystery, Really competent kids, Superboy doesn't exist yet or he would too, There is a plot but I don't know it yet, They won't be alone forever though, They're kids at the beginning, Three kids in the woods, Threesome - F/M/M, Wilderness, Zatanna and Kaldur and M'gann will show up eventually, empty world, eventually, probably, sort of, super slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-11 08:49:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8972689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windywords123/pseuds/Windywords123
Summary: Artemis, Dick, and Wally wake up in the woods. They survive, as one does. (Dick is 8Artemis is 10Wally is 11, and none of them are heroes yet. Basically an excuse to make these three super competent and reliant on each other.)





	1. Day 1 (Plus some of Day 4)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story that I'm writing because it makes me happy to write these three characters. I will update it weekly, on Fridays; it will have short chapters and the plot's going to be slowww, because the plot's not really the point: the characters hanging out with each other and surviving is. I don't actually know the plot, just yet; I do know a few things that will happen much later on, though. But if you read things primarily for a quick-moving plot you probably want to leave.

Artemis has been wandering around the forest for hours when the kid drops out of nowhere. She screams, then bites it off but the rest of the scream is still in her throat, & reflexively she throws a knife she doesn't have.  
  
_Stupid! Stupid girl, no wonder Jade didn't..._  
  
“Hey!” the kid says, cheerful as anything but then Artemis hits herself and looks and the kid's terrified and wary and desperate and, well, good, because  
  
_because it's the mission to make him – right I need a –_  
  
“Listen, do you know where we are? I'm lost.”  
  
He has an accent. Eastern European or ( _Jade would **know**_ ) eastern european.  
  
“You're from Eastern Europe, right?” Artemis says, brusquely.  
  
The kid smiles at her, somehow sunnier than before but Artemis hits herself anyway for saying that, for not putting him at ease. “Do you know where the people are?”  
  
Artemis flinches with her whole body. “I'm not... who _are_ you?” she says.  
  
She hates him (she doesn't want to like him). He's young. _Young and scared_ , Jade's voice whispers, _a perfect target_ –  & Artemis has to shut her eyes, stop looking stop her sister saying things like _that._  
  
Like what? Things a **good** daughter would do? Says Jade, laughing, poisonous  & Artemis wishes she could close her eyes twice but she can't & she can still hear the kid –  
  
“I don't know where my family is.” He pauses, breath catching. “I... I don't know where any of my family is. My name's Dick Grayson. There should be a circus, around here somewhere, but I guess I got lost and I don't know where my – where anyone is” And his voice has cracked and he's trembling and she can see the tears and he's stupid, a weak little kid, and  
  
“I don't know either,” Artemis says, trying to stop the words but they just keep coming, falling out of her mouth like water over a cliff “my sis- my family isn't around either, I've been here for hours and I haven't seen anyone else and I think,” but she doesn't say what she thinks, manages to swallow, finally, the rest of the sentence.  
  
“Okay,” says the kid, “okay.” and he looks so pitiful and sad and Artemis thinks, _well dad never – dad never **told** me I had to kill him, right?_  
  
“We can walk together,” she offers, impulsively, “maybe we'll find them.”  
  
But the words she swallowed are still heavy on her tongue.  
  
_– they abandoned us –_  
  
The kid smiles, says “I'd like that”  
  
_They're not coming back._

***

Dick climbs a tree pretty much as soon as he wakes up. Auntie Alzabeta always said that the high ground is really important, and besides he can't see anything on the ground. Climbing doesn't help that much with seeing anything, because there's branches in the way, but he feels better off the ground.  
  
He looks around grinning. He even does a triple somersault in the air; there's no net or anything but there's also no one to see, and it's hard with the branches and not the trapeze he's used to. He does it and no one's mad cause he did such a dangerous move without any net, but no one claps either, and the grin starts fading at that. No one is around. His family isn't _anywhere_ , and he can't hear the faint sounds that mean home; there's just the noise of the forest and nothing else at all. Dick tries to just look at the pretty spots of sunlight and think about the birds singing but it's weird, because there's _no one_ here, and there are always people but there are no people here and Dick jumps to another branch, like a monkey, it's cool and there are no people. The branches make cool patterns as they dig into his skin; there are no people here.  
  
He is starting to almost breathe fast (mum always says, he remembers, to breathe slow, specially if you're moving fast or thinking fast, because if you breathe slow you got more air to think with) when he spots a flash of yellow on the forest floor and he drops out of the tree and almost screws up the landing, he did it so fast.  
  
“Hey!” He says. The breathing-fast feeling goes away, a little, because there's a _person_. “Listen, do you know where we are? I'm lost.”  
  
The person does not answer his question; she says, “You're from Eastern Europe, right?” But it's okay. A lot of times people don't really answer Dick's questions. Maybe she didn't see any people, either.  
  
He smiles at her, a little wavery but a smile, still. “Do you know where the people are?”  
  
She says, “I'm not... who _are_ you?”  
  
She still didn't answer his question, so he asks a different one. “I don't know where my family is,” he says, and _oh_ , saying it makes it so sad, so sad that the words come out again, “I... I don't know where any of my family is. My name's Dick Grayson. There should be a circus, around here somewhere, but I guess I got lost and I don't know where my – where anyone is.”  
  
He doesn't mean to be crying, in this forest without his family, with only this girl who says, “I don't know either. My sis- my family isn't around either, I've been here for hours and I haven't seen anyone else and I think,” but she doesn't finish.  
  
He doesn't mean to be crying so he says, “Okay,” and then again, “okay.” And the girl who has not answered any of his questions says, “We can walk together. Maybe we'll find them.”  
  
It's not really an answer. She sounds like Lynn, when Lynn is lying. But there is no one else in this forest. No one at all. So Dick says “I'd like that,” and this is true. But he would like even more to find his family. 

***

Wally wakes up to blue eyes, way close, way intense, belonging to this little kid who's face is _right above his face_. Wally kind of sits there blinking for a second and then it's like _woah where am I?_ even above the mystery of the kid cause he definitely went to bed in his room, and this is not his bed, like, at all.  
  
He scrambles back from blue eyes  & yeah wow he's not in his bed at all & what is up with noise in this place? It's a forest and there's supposed to be, like, birdsong and leaves rustling or whatever, but there's just a weird background hum-roar thing. Wait, blue-eyes is only reacting _now_?  
  
The kid's closing his eyes blinking or something and Wally's thinking about the chemistry set he just got, and his parents, and Mal, his best friend since forever, with just a little desperation. Because he went to bed in his bed and no one's that slow. He tries to grasp at thoughts of videogames but the thought sneaks around the edges like some weird thief: this is not his home, and something has _changed_.  
  
The kid's face is stretching out, endlessly, and Wally thinks _wow talking looks **weird**_ , but underneath that he's thinking this:  
  
_I'm not ever going home, am I?_


	2. Day 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My computer's back up! So that's nice. I was expecting a much longer wait. 
> 
> Timeline: Right after Wally gets superspeed for Wally (the lightning caused him to forgot what turned out to be a very eventful week of his life), a month or two after Jade leaves for Artemis, and shortly before his parents fall for Dick. This is a non-canon timeline, I'm pretty sure, but I chose these times because I felt like, at other times, these three wouldn't be open to establishing a relationship with each other. Yet they'd still be stuck with no one else around, so a relationship would have to form, but it would be unhealthy. I disapprove of and try to avoid glorifying unhealthy relationships when I can, although I'll admit this one will be a bit unhealthy. But less so than it might be. 
> 
> I can provide more detailed reasoning if anyone's curious!

It has been three days, and _wow_ is Dick tired. Tired of the stupid berries that are all Artemis says they can eat and of walking next to this stupid spring that Artemis says they need to walk by, tired of walking, period, (which is why he is, instead, cartwheeling), tired of Artemis. Well, okay, she's his only company and she is... nice. More or less. But she's serious _all the time_ and it doesn't help make him feel any better about not seeing anyone else for three days, that Artemis is serious _all the time_. Doesn't help with –

Dick doesn't think that thought, because he's _also_ tired of crying. 

But luckily the stupid forest apparently decides to be nice, for once, because just then it opens up into a cl _earing and there's a flash of orange – _a person_! Dick realizes and then there is no thought. Artemis says, “Dick, no, don't!” but it doesn't matter; there's a _person_!_

He crouches down, studying every detail of the face that is not Artemis'. The face is snoring, and then – woah is he ever _not_ snoring. Dick blinks hard but the kid's still about three feet away. And then he's gone entirely. 

 

***

 

“Dick, no, don't!” Artemis hisses.

But it's too late. The stupid little idiot has already gone and leaned over the kid, who might be bait or waiting to ambush him or playing dead or – snoring.

Artemis is about to go shake Dick for his recklessness and get him away from the kid so they can _plan_ when her brain registers that the ginger has moved – moved at superspeed. Her heart's already beating fast enough but it starts going double time at the sudden movement.

She can't leave Dick around the boy, Artemis realizes, already running. She can't. He's just a kid, he doesn't have any training at all – sure the acrobatics are cool but they're hardly a combat skill. But she's only halfway across the clearing when the ginger 

runs away.

_how to catch a speedster: you can't. But if you ever have to face one, baby girl, don't try and do things faster than them; set things up beforehand and if you can, get them on your good side. Make them **not want** to run, that's the trick._

_Yeah Artie, Flash is a sucker, Jade interjected, bat your eyes at him and pretend like you're a helpless little baby girl and he'll give up. Oh wait, you are!_

Artemis ignores the laughter in her head. They're not here, she reminds herself, achingly. And then she ignores that too, and plans instead.

If she can get on the ginger's good side. If he's not an assassin or her mark or dangerous ( _of course he's dangerous he's got **superspeed**_ , Jade whispers) if he's gullible, it would be good for Dick, to have more company. It's been a long three days and she's tried to protect him – because he's even younger than her and _she's_ terr- a little scared. But he's used to a lot more people ( _a family_ ) and he's got so much energy. And the superspeed would be an asset, if they remain stuck here for( _ever_ ) a long period of time. 

The only problem with all this is that the speedster is already _gone_ , but – 

Oh. He's back. 

 

***

 

_This,_ Wally thinks, _is weird. This is so. Incredibly. Weird._

The thing is, it's not really the running that's strange; that feels like normal running even if it's obviously not. What's weird is living in a slow-mo version of real life. In some ways it's kind of his biggest dream, but... he didn't expect to end up in some weird, abandoned forest, instead of zooming in to save the Flash from the Rogues just as they were about to get the better of him. There's no Flash here – or if there is, he's hiding _really_ well. 

There's no houses or anything, at least as far as he can see. Wally realized about twenty trees from the clearing that his time perception's sped up as fast as his legs are, so superspeed or not, running to the edge of this forest would probably _suck_. He keeps going for a little while, but the trees aren't thinning at all and blue-eyes is the only person he's seen, so he turns around. 

Or at least tries to. Stopping is... harder than expected. Wally brushes the dirt from his clothes and bites his lip, trying not to cry. He's alone and the kid's probably left, and he has superspeed and it means _nothing_ there's no Flash here, and then he's sobbing and there's no one to hear, no one at all. 

It takes a long time – _or a short one,_ Wally thinks, _why do I have superspeed why am I here this doesn't make any **sense**_ – but eventually he pushes back the overwhelming rush of thoughts on his own and gets up and turns around. He slows down more slowly, this time. 

_Huh,_ he thinks. _There's a girl, too._


	3. Still Day 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates today! Chapters got moved around, sorry for any confusion

“Hi,” Wally says. _Oh, duh, superspeed,_ he realizes after about five seconds of watching their faces twist up, frame-by-frame, in confusion. It would be hilarious if there was anyone to laugh with, but – but no one else can see this. Wally swallows and tries again. “Hhhiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Wwwwhaaaaaat'ssss goooooiiiiinnnnggg ooonnnnn?” 

The girl mouths the words, before, finally, saying “Wwwwhaaaaat iiiiiissss yyyyyyooooouuurrr nnaaaamme aaannd whyy are you here? Do you know the Flash?” 

“Oh thank god.” Wally says, because about halfway through something _clicked_ and he got his brain to run at regular speed. The two kids are just looking at him. Their faces look different at regular speed. “I asked first, Blondie!” Blue-eyes starts cackling wildly. Wally keeps talking although _man_ that laugh is eery. “Where _are_ we? Who are you? Did you take me here? What's going on??”

“We're your worst nightmare!” The littler kid says, cheerfully.

Blondie gives him a flat look. “Look, I'm Artemis and that's Dick. Now answer the question.” 

“Wait, seriously? Artemis and _Dick_? Oh man that's even worse than blondie and blue-eyes!” Wally says. 

Blondie – Artemis – is scowling and Dick is sticking out his tongue and then the expressions are stretching out and Wally inadvertently says “Nooo!” because he's losing it, time's going too slowly again and then Artemis is saying something that he can't understand at all and –

Just a minute ago this was fun, he thinks. He tries to pretend that the Flash is going to come get Wally as soon as he can, and then he can be the Flash's sidekick, and he'll see his parents again and they'll put the criminal who put them here in jail, but he doesn't really believe it. Wally's never been very good at pretending.

And then things are speeding up again and he's missed... basically everything Artemis just said. “Sorry,” he says. “I... didn't catch that. Look, I'm Wally, and I was in my bed and now I'm here and I don't know why and I'm

“scared, okay, I'm scared and I don't know what happened and I don't know where I am and I don't know the Flash, I haven't – I wasn't fast before and I don't know what's going on. Okay?”

He looks up. The world's on pause. Wally looks away and thinks, really hard, about screaming. 

 

***

 

_Wow_ , thinks Dick. He has seen lots of really cool tricks. But he knows that they are all tricks. Wally looks hurting, and Dick feels a little bad, but that was _cool_.

He has heard about heroes before, of course, because Papa tells him bedtime stories. But he's never _seen_ one. 

“You could write things down,” he suggests, when Wally's face stops flickering. “Here.” He hands Wally the big, straight stick he found earlier.

Wally looks frustrated, but he takes the stick. But he also appears to be stuck at normal speed, at least for right now. 

“So.” Artemis says, flatly. “You woke up here with superspeed.” 

“Yeah,” Wally says. “Look, do you two know what's going on?” 

“No clue!” Dick says, smiling because saying it makes his heart ache. 

Wally groans. 

In that, at least, they're united. 

 

***

 

Dick's an idiot. The new kid is worse. But he's got superspeed, and he's company, non-hostile company, and Artemis doesn't want to admit it, but they probably _have_ to pay attention to things like that. If – _**if**_ , she thinks sharply, drowning out the doubt – they're stuck here for much longer, they can't leave him behind.

“So,” Artemis says, “None of us know why we're here. We were all just living before we woke up here. Wally randomly got superspeed when he got here. Now, _do you know the Flash?_ ” 

Wally blinks. He admits, “No,” a little wistfully. “I have no idea what happened.” 

“Okay.” Artemis says, and thinks. 

Dick's from all over Europe. Wally's from Midwestern USA. She's from Gotham. They all speak English. Wally has superspeed. Dick's a famous acrobat (or at least, his parents are). She's... Artemis. 

There's nothing. “Why are we _here_?” She finally says, almost stomping her foot.

Dick looks at her, head cocked. “Maybe,” he says, slowly, “that's the wrong question. Maybe... why is no one _else_ here? Why us, in particular? 

“Or why aren't we _there_?” Wally says, ruining the brief silence. “And where is here, anyway?”

They sit there, but the birdsong and the wind offer no answers. 

Later that night, Artemis starts making a bow.


	4. Day 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wally catches a bird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately my computer died, so the chapters I really wanted to post today aren't going to happen. I actually planned a double-update as a holiday gift so: I owe you all a double update whenever my computer's running again (no promises that it will be anytime soon). Things may be a bit disjointed because I really meant for those two chapters to come first, but I hope everything still mostly works! 
> 
> Also: I'm not at all sure I have the kids' voices right. I've never been around kids that age. Thoughts? Concrit? Reviews?
> 
> EDIT: Two new chapters up! They are the two chapters right before this one. Sorry for any confusion this might cause!

“Dare you to catch a bird with your bare hands,” Dick said, swiping a berry from Wally’s basket. 

“Wh-no!” Wally said, swiping it back almost before it had left his hands. “I can’t do that.” 

“Can’t?” Dick stared at Wally, a little confused. “Did the superspeed go away or…?” 

“No, I just -- it’s a _bird_ ,” Wally said. 

“Uh-huh,” Dick said, not seeing the problem. Birds had gotten to a lot of the berries before them and he would’ve thought Wally would be happy to reduce competition. 

“Don’t run around for no reason, stupidheads!” Artemis yelled, a little ways off. She was working on making what she _said_ was a bow. It didn’t really look like a bow to Dick. More like a big branch. But she said it was a bow.

They traded glances. “Dare you,” Dick whispered. “I’ll give you one of my handfuls of berries.” 

“Deal.” Swallowing, Wally stood up -- and then he was off, running more-or-less normal speed at first but then faster and faster. 

Smirking a little, Dick leaned back against a convenient tree trunk to watch the show.

***

Wally stared at the feathers in his fingers. 

He couldn’t stop thinking of the vacation to California a long time ago, and that one beach. His parents had wanted a picnic so they’d told him to chase away the seagulls, and Wally had chased them, laughing, to the other side of the beach; he remembered the squawking upheaval as they’d all flown away ahead of them. He’d gotten a feather too, that time, but it was something his dad picked up and just gave to him, later. 

Wally was a city kid. Birds were nature, and nature was in parks and things, or on vacation; you went there and watched it or maybe chased it but you weren’t supposed to _catch_ it. 

Of course here there weren’t any parks. Or beaches. Or people or towns or anything _but_ nature. But Wally still felt weird about actually touching a real bird. Somehow it was even weirder than the superspeed and everything else. 

But then Artemis was stomping over to him and yelling and Wally realized he’d been thinking fast again and his mind snapped to slowing itself down because piecing together the first part of a sentence from too-slow sounds when he hadn’t been paying attention was annoying. 

“--ou’re gonna go catch a bird in such a _stupid_ way at least properly hold onto it.” 

Wally bristled. “Hey, I got the feathers! I’d like to see you do that!”

Artemis snorted. “Yeah and I’m sure those will satisfy your huge appetite, Wall-man,” she said.

“I gather the most food of anyone,” Wally snapped. “It’s not my fault I’m faster than you!” 

“Then whose is it numbskull because -- ”

Dick chose that exact moment to drop down from the trees directly in between them. Wally overbalanced backward and _of course_ like some kinda cosmic _joke_ one of the feathers landed directly on his nose. He sneezed.

And of course Artemis was still on her feet and Dick was cackling. _Jerks,_ Wally thought savagely, scrambling to his feet. 

“No but okay I did dare Wally,” Dick said. “And we could use it to get more food, right? Ooh, Wally could chase down a deer and tame it and then we could name it Rudolph or something!” 

_Yep, never telling him my middle name_ , Wally decided. But he felt a little bad when he saw how Dick seemed a little honestly excited about the idea. He was still just a kid…

“We’d be better off making traps,” Artemis said, as kill-joy as ever. But she looked at him and Wally had to look away. It was true that without her and Dick he woulda… it wouldn’t have been fun.

Dick was just a kid. So was he, though. They were all just kids. 

***

 _Great,_ Artemis thought, _now I have to remember what Dad said about traps. Along with everything else._

It would be good to have traps. Better than berries, which took hours to pick for every handful it seemed like, and maybe faster than her bow. And squirrels were definitely edible, unlike all of the plants she knew nothing about and the boys were _useless_ & she was just a kid & she didn’t know what she was doing at all -- 

Artemis gritted her teeth, and whittled another arrow. She had her big pocket knife, at least, and the other knife she slept with. Till they got dull and she had nothing to replace them with. 

Maybe she could get Wally to try a bit of some new plants? He’d burn through any minor poisons quick but maybe too quick to be useful, like everything else he did. But anything Wally could eat would be good because Wally ate a _lot_ , even if she and Dick couldn’t.

 _Isn’t so fun, is it,_ not-real Jade commented, _playing Mom._

 _Shut up!_ Artemis thought. _I’m not their mom!_

 _Aren’t you?_ In-her-head Jade said, vague images flashing --

Artemis shook her head, pushing back the stupid thoughts that were just her, being stupid. _Wally caught that bird and Dick knows some things about wild foods. We’ll be okay,_ she thought, trying to believe it. 

“Hey, Artie,” Dick said. “Here.” He deposited a handful of berries right onto the dirt in front of her and ran off again, to go pick more.

Artemis smiled. 

_We’ll be okay._


	5. Night 1

“It's getting dark,” Artemis says, eventually, “we should look for a place to spend the night.” It _is_ dark, dark and cloudy, but she hadn't been able to make herself say anything, before, because every time her throat closed up a little and she kept thinking of her sister. But it's well and truly dark now and Dick's been slowing down. He left the trees a while ago, even though he'd been showing off before that, jumping from tree to tree like some demented monkey.

“...we haven't seen any people,” he says. 

Artemis doesn't look at him. “Yeah.” She says. “We need sleep though. There has to be a cave or something, in case it rains. Somewhere.” 

“We didn't see one yet,” Dick says, dully. “Not like we can see anything without flashlights or anything.” 

“Yeah, well... we'll set up a teepee or something, I don't know.” Now that they've stopped, the chill is obvious. They don't have blankets. They don't have anything. And they should have started looking when the sun was still up.

Artemis looks around, despairing. They've been following a little creek downhill; earlier there were more rocks and the possibility of overhangs, cliffs, but here it is more or less flat. There's undergrowth everywhere. Halfheartedly, she thwacks at a bush.

“It's clearer over here,” Dick whispers. Now that they are thinking about stopping it feels sacrilegious, somehow, to talk really out loud. The dark swallows up the words.

It's a terrible spot to sleep. It is at the base of a tree but if it rains, they will get soaked, and they have no coverings; it was summer back home. 

There are no better options. Exhaustion is practically dragging her downward, now that she has stopped. 

“Okay,” Artemis says. She gathers some leaves from the tree. “Lie down.”

Dick follows her order, drooping himself. She gathers as many leaves as she can and drops them on him in some semblance of a blanket and then lays down herself, cuddling near for warmth. He doesn't protest. She thinks he might already be asleep. 

Artemis stares out into the darkness for as long as she can, hoping for something to – change, come take her back to her ( _sister_ ) world anything, but nothing does. She's alone in the wilderness with only a stupid little kid for company, against the great, rustling-whistling-shrieking unknown.

But she's exhausted, and even the wild night eventually slides away from her, into sleep. 

 

***

 

Dick wakes up, freezing, in the middle of the night. Artemis snores, soft little whistles, but she doesn't move much. She's curled around him, but it's not enough to ward off all of the chill and the leaves are just itchy; they don't help at all.

Dick shivers, and, carefully, extracts himself from Artemis to pee. He is thinking about his mother snoring, and how it sometimes annoyed John when he slept over in their trailer but how it had always been a lullaby for him, when he couldn't fall asleep right away. He is glad that Artemis snores, even if it sounds nothing like his mother's rumbles.

He is tired, but he is also cold, and so he climbs a tree because he does not think he can sleep just yet. 

And then... then there are the stars. 

Dick is tired, and cold, and sick with loneliness – 

Dick has never seen a sky so full. 

For a moment it is so full it overflows, and fills his heart, too, so that he cannot even think of anything else – 

and then it is just a sky again, a sky more beautiful than any he has ever seen, in a world that is not his own. 

 

.  
.  
.

 

(When he returns, Artemis is not snoring. She holds him close, pretending to still be asleep, and Dick wipes his wet face and hugs her back. 

“The stars are beautiful,” he whispers. Artemis does not open her eyes, does not get up and look. But Dick sees something in the set of her shoulders. He is not alone. 

Dick can't stop the tears from coming. Artemis tightens her grip. There is silence for a long time, the humming silence of a forest at night. But that slips away, till her soft, whistling snores lull him gently to sleep.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really appreciate any reviews, well-thought-out or not. Thanks for reading!


End file.
